Online exclusive.
1. The Team That Hit the Rocks by Peter Jerram (David Bateman)
In April 1968, the interisland passenger ferry Wahine hit Barrett Reef at the entrance to Wellington Harbour in a cyclone, the worst storm ever recorded in New Zealand’s history. Among the 610 passengers and 125 crew was the Lincoln College cricket team with one Peter Jerram among its number. Some 53 people lost their lives and while the cricket team all survived, the disaster had a huge impact on them.
Initially, they didn’t discuss their experiences but over the years, that has changed. Drawing from the written and oral testimony of his teammates, crew and rescuers, Jerram has produced a “riveting firsthand account” of their stories. He also examines what led to the disaster and loss of life finding serious fault with the Court of Inquiry into the tragedy.
From the publisher: “Told for the first time from a survivor’s perspective, The Team That Hit the Rocks is a powerful account of our nation’s worst modern maritime disaster and the unbreakable bond formed by those who survived”.
2. Evolving by Judy Bailey (HarperCollins)
In which the person who presented our TV news from 1986 to 2005 (“I just fell into it”) offers an “inspiring and personal guide to ageing well and with happiness”. It covers older people’s health, fitness (she does Pilates), finances and embracing joy, as well as the inevitable losses and griefs of a life. Bailey says being in your 70s today is a world away from what it used to be. “We’re out there doing things and we’ve got a lot to contribute,” she told Australian Women’s Weekly NZ.
3. Dame Suzy D by Susan Devoy (Allen & Unwin)
Petra Bagust describes Dame Susan Devoy’s autobiography as “a rollicking story of a life well lived” and John Campbell says the book is “the story of becoming Suzy D - in all her determined, triumphant and unabashed singularity”.
In her own words - and in the straight-up style that won her legions of new fans on Celebrity Treasure Island - Dame Susan tells the story of her life so far: the wins, the losses, the battles, as well as the bonds that got her through life’s hardest challenges.
Some might be surprised to learn that as well as being a sporting champ, chief executive and Race Relations Commissioner, she also answered the call when our horticulture industry needed staff and worked as a kiwifruit picker.
4. Feijoa, by Kate Evans (Moa Press)
A guide to and history (with recipes) of our second-favourite oval fruit. David Hill in the Listener said, “Feijoas: there doesn’t seem to be any middle ground with them. You either breathe in their sun-and-summer scent as you anticipate that first honey-lush slide of them over the papillae (indeed, I’m salivating), or you recoil from contact, going ‘Ewww! Too perfumed! Too sickly!’ … Foreign? Well, yes: they originated some 30 million years ago in Brazilian highlands and Uruguayan valleys. There’s something pleasingly incongruous about a plant with such provenance becoming a commonplace in Kiwi side streets.
“Raglan-based, internationally published journalist Kate Evans offers this as ‘a book about connections’. So it is: connections with other feijoa fanatics (Evans neatly calls them ‘disciples’); between plants and the animals who spread their seeds; between ‘tamed’ varieties and environments; and of course between humans and nature. No plant is an island.
“Evans is an irrepressible investigator, phoning or visiting experts across multiple continents. From its origins in South America, the feijoa was studied in Germany, collected in France, domesticated in the US, transplanted to NZ. She heads to virtually all venues.”
5. Māori Made Easy Pocket Guide by Scotty Morrison (Penguin)
Scotty Morrison’s Māori Made Easy Pocket Guide does exactly what it says on the kēna, or tin. A bit wider than a cellphone, it’s an updated and reworked “careful selection of some of the best and most useful content from my previous books”. This includes pronunciation and communication basics, as well as history, tikanga and essential phrases like “Aue, kei te tino rongo au i te whiu a te waipiro” – “Gosh, I am terribly hungover.”
6. Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin)
Laura is a successful communications manager on a break from work and back in her home town for a visit before walking from one end of New Zealand to the other. But her plans get thrown out the window when the family of her long-term ex-boyfriend, Doug, come back into her life. Then Doug’s kid brother, Mick, begins to take an interest.
From the Listener’s review: “Two Takes is a great small-town drama in which local gossips try to make mischief with Laura’s situation, while the family bookshop needs to be kept running and a murky property development is being sold to vulnerable locals. It’s a cosy read, though the author isn’t afraid to broach some bigger issues, such as how families manage illness, women deal with infertility and the sometimes tricky relationships between mothers and daughters.”
7. The Call by Gavin Strawhan (A&U)
Another local thriller writer who’s gone into the bestseller list on debut. Strawhan, an experienced TV writer including on Shortland Street, has written a “deft and accomplished” novel, we thought.
“The event of the title that sets Strawhan’s story into motion is an early-morning phone call to Auckland detective Honey Chalmers from Kloe, a battered mother-of-three who’s tired of the beatings and disrespect from her gang-affiliated partner.
“The Reapers are 501 ‘blow ins’ from Australia who have recently set up shop in Aotearoa and are working on an ambitious deal to bring in a large amount of meth-amphetamine through the Port of Tauranga, enlisting the help of a local gang.
“That 4am call will change both women’s lives. It will lead to Chalmers receiving a vicious beating which she’s lucky to survive and set Kloe on a life-or-death journey as a police informant – a situation complicated when family members begin to suspect something is going on.
“Chalmers’ assault sees her taking time off from the police and relocating to Waitutu to recover and to take care of her mother, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s.
" … While Chalmers rightly gets most of the page-time, Strawhan also depicts the high-stakes life of Kloe: “She was so busy trying not to give anything away, she couldn’t remember how to be. It was like trying to walk down steps. It came naturally to you, until you tried to deliberately put one foot after the other.”
" … But best of all is DS Honey Chalmers. Strawhan captures her beautifully: tough, vulnerable and smart, and willing to step outside the rules to get things done. Let’s hope this isn’t the last we see of her.”
8. Aroha by Hinemoa Elder (Penguin)
The wisdom of 52 Māori proverbs explained by psychiatrist Hinemoa Elder in this bestselling book first released in – can you believe it? – 2020. An extract:
“Ko te mauri, he mea huna ki te moana – The life force is hidden in the sea.
“Powerful aspects of life are hidden in plain sight.
“This whakataukī stems from one of our famous ancestors from the north, Nukutawhiti. He cast his kura, his feathered cloak, into the Hokianga Harbour to calm the waters for safe passage. And this treasure remains there, out of sight, yet signifies the ancient presence of those that have gone before.
“This saying has given me strength so many times. I have always found it comforting because it speaks to the hidden magic of life.
“It reminds me of those things we feel intuitively but often ignore – we can choose to tune in to our gut instinct, for example, or wait until the messages become clearer and more obvious.
And it reminds me that we all have hidden powers inside us that we can too easily forget.”
9. On Call by Ineke Meredith (HarperCollins)
From the Listener: “Meredith writes about being a Kiwi general surgeon, and her memoir is a sharply written, occasionally eye-opening tale of life in the operating room and as a single parent. There are the young victims of a terrible car wreck, tales of prostates and catheters, the high-end call girl with an unusual request. Then there’s exhaustion, worrying about being a good mother, being punched in the face by a patient. And then her parents in Samoa, where she grew up, get sick. Is the job worth it? No spoilers, but the memoir ends on a positive note of change.”
10. The Space Between by Lauren Keenan (Penguin)
This novel, set during the New Zealand Wars in 1860, focuses on Frances, an unmarried Londoner newly landed in Aotearoa. She meets Henry White, who had jilted her and is now husband to Matāria, who is shunned by her whānau because of her marriage. The blurb says, “As conflict between settlers and iwi rises, both women must find the courage to fight for what is right, even if it costs them everything they know.”
An extract: “Frances heard the commotion before she saw it: a man being arrested by two soldiers of the Crown, right in front of Thorpe’s General Store.
‘I belong here!’ the man shouted. ‘Nō Te Ātiawa au. This is our place.’ He wore a European shirt over trousers that were far too short. His black hair was unkempt, his eyes bright.
‘You need a pass to enter the township,’ one of the soldiers said, hands gripping his rifle. The soldier’s uniform was crisp and tidy: black trousers and a navy-blue tunic with shiny buttons. ‘Natives are not allowed here without swearing allegiance to the Queen. You should all know that by now. And you’re disturbing the peace by yelling.’
‘Go,’ the other soldier said. ‘Move.’
The man was led away, head bowed, past the staring customers at the butcher’s, the seamstress’s workshop and the bakery. Past the pile of cut wood that would soon be another military blockhouse, built to ensure that the likes of this loud, shabby man were kept out of the settlement. How unpleasant. Frances preferred not to think about what the newspapers called the ‘native troubles’ — it was all too frightening. So, she wouldn’t. She’d think about something else instead.”
(Source: Nielsen Bookscan NZ – week ending April 12)
